Hugh of St Victor and the Prophetic Contemplation of History

This chapter focuses on the influential twelfth-century theologian Hugh of St Victor, a canon regular bridging the monastic and scholastic worlds in Paris. The chapter argues that Hugh broadened and naturalized the prophetic model, closely linking prophecy with both general historical consciousness and contemplative experience. In his commentary on Ecclesiastes and the treatise called De vanitate mundi, Hugh’s meditations on sacred history reveal his optimism about the possibilities of discerning the sacred in contemporary events, not just in Scripture. Hugh makes these meditations on sacred history the basis for contemplative prayer, effectively promoting the cultivation of contemporary prophetic vision and thereby widening potential access to the traditionally elite prophetic calling.